Short Stories by Amaranthean

Deadly World

It started slowly but the rich weren't taking any chances. The domes started rising within the first week, with a million dollar buy in. My parents quickly liquefied all of their assets and cashed in all of their stocks and bonds, taking all of their retirement nest egg, pooling it together finally collecting their million. They moved us into the dome within a day and the ceiling was completed five days later.

Each section of the dome was ten feet thick and a solution poured on them that caused the melting of the two sections together permanently. You can see in from the outside however when looking out all you see is a mirror reflection of the city.

Watching the news they belittled everything, as if nature slowly dying was nothing. The domes were just a precaution; they swore if the situation became severe enough that everyone would be allowed in. There were always blights that would come through areas killing off different vegetation; they would compare it to the dogwood tree dying out in the deep south of the US, years ago.

The problem is that it didn't stop with one type of tree or vegetable, it was everything. Watching all of the leaves falling off of the trees, in the beginning of summer was surreal. Inside the domes this started happening slower but you could still see the effect of whatever process was going on.

My parents were so happy that we were safe within the dome. That was until the buy in was increased, there were so many people wanting in. Now the million was only good for one couple without children, if you wanted your children to stay with you they charged a million each.

Who would ever think that you could place a price on love, but they sent me away. My own parents valued their own lives more than mine; I suppose I would have saved myself if given a choice. No, I would have chose to save them, my parents I would have spared them death!

I slowly follow the line of other newly abandoned children out of the "safety" of the dome with nothing but the clothes on my back, and a broken heart. We found out quickly that they were not using the space we vacated for more rich snobs, but for scientists, doctors, other more important people, and government officials.

As the ambient oxygen levels begin to deplete due to the world slowly dying and all, thankfully, our bodies seem to be adjusting. I look inside the dome, there are people walking around with oxygen tanks to supplement the lower oxygen levels in their makeshift atmosphere.

I collapse at the side of the dome and look out around me. Despite it being slightly more difficult to breath, I feel ok. I look up into the trees; despite the heat of summer you would think it were wintertime. The leaves have all fallen and surround me where I sit. Fields that were once grassy expanses are full of fallen gray straw.
Weeks pass by into months as we scour our surroundings for anything resembling food. The houses and stores have already been scavenged by the more powerful leaving abandoned children to dig into the earth for bugs and small rodents. I keep to myself in a makeshift fort that I built deep in the woods and away from other people but close to the dome so I can occasionally glance my parents.

Wars are fought everyday, I can hear the roars of the battlefields and see the fires burning in the distance. When will life just cease, when will we all die? The domes are now permanently sealed to prevent looters from getting in, but they are also trapping everyone inside.

As I watch, life within the domes begins to fall apart much like outside, but there is nowhere for them to run. People are stealing others oxygen, and the sudden drop in the oxygen levels for those without, causes death. They try to bury the dead but there are far too many; diseases begin to spread. I watch in slow motion as those within the wall perish and wither away.

I know my parents are dead, but I still find myself looking for them. Crying for the people who would rather live than keep me. I slowly crabwalk away from the wall stumbling on a rock and fall back into the dirt.

As I turn on my side to get up, my hand brushes away the layer of leaves covering the ground, to reveal a small green plant. I push up onto my knees and push more leaves away from me, further and further into the distance. As I continue, I uncover more and more tiny little green plants.

So the world will survive, but with nothing but the ruthless and the weak remaining, what sort of world will it be?

If only my parents had left the dome when they forced me to leave, they would still be alive. Irony right?